PORTSMOUTH — The city on Thursday gained final approval to create a downtown employee parking permit program at the Isles of Shoals Steamship Co. lot on Market Street.

Downtown workers will be allowed to purchase a permit to park at the private Market Street parking lot in the winter months, thanks to the program first proposed in October by the city’s Parking and Traffic Safety Committee.

Having already reached a tentative agreement with the steamship company to use the lot, all that was remained was approval from the Pease Development Authority, because the property is part of the Port of New Hampshire.

The PDA board of directors signed off on the plan on Thursday.

Parking Division operations supervisor Tom Cocchiaro said 50 spaces will be available for the employee parking program beginning in November.

Cocchiaro said the city will formally announce the program sometime in the fall. The permits will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis, he said.

Downtown workers would be able to purchase a permit to park in the lot from November through April. Cocchiaro said all employees will have to do is show their pay stub and pay a $25 monthly fee.

“We want to make sure that the parking is available for those who are actually working downtown,” Cocchiaro said.

The city already has the forms and parking passes ready to go, he said. Parking spaces will be painted in the near future, he added.

Cocchiaro said the employee parking program will be treated as a trial run for the first year.

According to the agreement, any revenue generated from the parking permits would be divided in a way to offset costs to the city and provide a nominal fee to the steamship company for use of the lot.